An Album of Moshi Shanren -An Album of Pavilion and Landscape Ink Paintings by China's Leading Painters

Pavilion and landscape painting is a unique genre in the history of Chinese painting. There were outstanding painters skilled in pavilion and landscape painting produced by each dynasty. Guo Zhongshu, Liu Songnian, and Li Song of the Song Dynasty, Wang Zhenpeng of the Yuan Dynasty, Chou Shizhou of the Ming Dynasty, and Yuan Jiang and Yuan Yao of the Qing Dynasty all devoted themselves to painting pavilions and landscapes. But following Yuan Jiang and Yuan Yao, pavilion and landscape painting went into a period of decline.

However, even today painters who specialize in depicting pavilions, terraces and towers are by no means rare. Mr. Feng Moshi is one of the modern painters who explore the development of traditional pavilion and landscape painting. Feng Moshi engaged in designing decorations for classical garden architecture when he was young. This not only laid a good foundation for his later landscape painting, but attracted him to pavilion and landscape painting. Later, he studied under Guo Chuanzhang of the Beijing Imperial Art Academy. His skill at traditional brushwork improved.

His paintings of pavilions and landscapes broke new ground by stressing freehand brushwork and profiling. The pavilions and towers he paints are rigorous but not rigid, and his mountains and woods are free and easy, but not reckless. His strokes are bold and fluid, expressing his vivid artistic conception. He has basically formed his own artistic style.

Several years ago, Mr. Feng published a collection of his paintings under the title, Marvelous Mansions in All the Land. Most of his works are sketched from nature, depicting noted buildings and gardens.

In recent years, Mr. Feng has put stress on images in his paintings. He often places jade halls among mountains and rivers. The ridgepoles and colored beams with upturned eaves among the vast mountains and rivers suggest a fairyland. These paintings have great momentum, and show deep imagination. This publication marks a new stage in Mr. Feng's career.